Monday, 1 August 2016

Creativity at Best

Walking Table

The tree removal device

Inspired by Noah who saved all of the plants and animals from a global flood, Aleksandar Joksimovic and Jelena Nikolic envisioned a modern and sustainable ark capable of supporting all life in the event of a natural disaster. Their innovative water world would support life on terraced fields, grow food, collect rainwater, generate its own power and is engineered to withstand all forms of water-based disasters.

The new Volkswagen Microbus concept is a tribute to the original in style, but is completely modern in its environmental consciousness. The new VW bus is a bio-diesel hybrid filled with modern gadgets not imagined during first go-round. The new design, the Verdier, after its Canadian designer Alexander Verdier, is all about making the campervan cooler, more functional and more environmentally friendly. It also features an adjustable roof, various fold-outs, a table and stove, and two awnings.

The Audi Truck B is designed as an electric autonomous ‘show’ truck, the aesthetic of this is curvy and reminiscent of Daniel Simon’s design style (subjectivity alert!).

The age of the micro-living is upon us and that means it’s time to get smart with space saving! The Inflatable Bathtub is one concept that maximizes micro-bathrooms with an innovative way to switch between shower and tub. With the press of a button, users can switch between their preferred method of bathing. In seconds, the unit expands to the size of a regular bathtub. When more space is needed, the unit can be left in “storage mode” in which users can operate the water controls to shower and enjoy a larger feeling bathroom!

Not compromising on thickness, the Light Bookmark is a slick looking flexible PCB bookmark that can light up to make your reading easier. All you do is fold the bookmark so that the ends meet, and put a cell battery between them. The impregnated LEDs instantly light up, giving you a super-minimal makeshift lamp (that kind of looks like a bulb too, in its bent avatar!).

Ever had to print large documents? They’re quite annoying. Ever had to print multiple copies of large documents?? They’re an absolute nightmare! While most printers allow you to ‘collate’ prints, there’s always a 1% (usually more) chance that one rogue paper finds itself in the wrong pile. The Dividing Printer, as its name suggests does something simple yet smart. It mounts the printer on a rail and allows the printer to move left or right while printing documents. What this does is that it allows the printer to create actual, physical piles of paper that have been segregated from the get go. The elegance of this solution lies in the fact that it doesn’t change what the printer fundamentally does. It just adds a small bit of innovation elsewhere to solve the problem!

Skyscraper, future yacht

SkySaver is an easy to use personal rescue backpack that allows for safe and quick evacuation of high-rise buildings in an emergency situation.

Since infernos pose great challenges to fire departments, requiring a high degree of organization to be successfully contained and extinguished, it’s important to rescue as many people as possible before and while the fire is put out. And that’s exactly when the SkySaver says it can come in.

The Yirego Drumi is 22 inches tall and spins a small load of clothing, water and detergent in the interior ball drum when the pedal is pumped. It can accommodate six to seven pieces, or 5 pounds, of clothing at a time, which keeps it from being a good substitute for a family of four, but it would be suitable for a couple living in a tiny home, camping trips, college students or anyone looking to run their machine less : 250$

DIY Personal Storage

Creative kitchen gadgets

"If in need of a wrench and one is not at hand, take a large bolt and run on two nuts, allowing a space between them to fit over the nut to be turned," we said in March 1910. "This will make a serviceable wrench, a substitute that will prove very beneficial in case of an emergency."

Get Inspired: Wooden iPhone stand from FineGrain

The Eco Cooler is reportedly the world’s first-ever ‘zero electricity’ air conditioner, and its inventor wanted to get the concept out there to help as many people as possible. The Grey Group stepped in to help, using its position as a multinational advertising firm to put the plans online, at no cost, so that anyone can build their own Eco Cooler system. Volunteers from Grameen Intel Social Business helped build and install the units, as well as teach locals how to make them, so the wisdom can be passed on.

Furniture multifunctional

The Skid knife looks pretty wicked… but I can’t really tell when the handle ends and the blade begins! Made out of 97% wood and just 3% carbon steel, the Skid knife looks absolutely sharp, both figuratively as well as literally! Incredibly light to hold, the knife allows the blade’s edge to be the heavier part of the cutting tool, giving you better control. The entire body of the knife is precisely crafted in wood, and coated in linseed oil, making the wood impervious to staining and increasing its lifespan.

Say hello to Henry – Independence-X Aerospace’s submission for the Google Lunar Prize competition for low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. This minimalist spacecraft is designed to visit the moon by 2017, move 500 meters and transmit HD images back to earth. The compact, lightweight design utilizes space grade materials such as aluminium and carbon fiber. Powered by solar electricity, it features an integrated satellite and 360HD tower camera for pioneering lunar photography.

It’s funny how portability is such a relative word. Buildings aren’t portable, cars are. But in front of bicycles, even cars don’t seem that portable anymore. Consequently, you can carry a bicycle up the stairs, but you can’t store it in your cramped bedroom. Skateboards are therefore more portable than bicycles, what’s the next step? BoardUp has the answer. Foldable longboards give you the moving experience of a regular longboard, but they fold into half right down the middle. Most experts would argue that this makes the board incredibly weak at the folding point, but you’d be surprised how sturdy the self-locking hinge is. So much so that it doesn’t even flex when in the locked position. You can even lock and unlock the hinge hands-free with the help of a discreet pedal on the edge of the board.

Whether it’s via the air, land, or sea, fantastic voyages have long inspired timepiece design and the modern Odyssey watch is no exception. The masculine design looks to our eventual space travel as inspiration for its subtly futuristic yet sophisticated aesthetic.

The design community’s massive growth can be attributed to one major event in the recent past. The birth of the 3D printer. The 3D printer has not only enabled the designer to unleash absolute creativity, it has also brought prototyping abilities into the home, allowing anyone to set up their design and manufacturing studio virtually anywhere. That statement wasn’t completely true until recently. 3D printers may have been around for a while now, but they weren’t small, and they definitely weren’t affordable. The Micro by M3D is quite a game changer in that regard. Aptly named, the Micro truly is a consumer desktop printer… because it literally fits on your desk! The compact printer however isn’t a toy. Crafted with a carbon fiber framework, the Micro is more than sturdy. It even houses a ceramic heating system for the extruder nozzle that’s aerospace grade.M3D’s micro is the smallest, and one of the only printers to work with carbon fiber. This means your prototypes get a next-level quality build that can withstand real-world applications, allowing designers to unlock serious potential… right in their own backyards!

Use a split eraser to hold a finish nail

Bringing innovation to the portable audio industry the way JBL did with the Pulse Bluetooth speaker back in 2013, Glow makes use of an innovative material called Fibrance. Developed by Corning (the people behind GorillaGlass), Fibrance is a fiber optic cable that instead of conducting light through it, dissipates it evenly across the length of the cable, allowing it to illuminate brightly and evenly by scattering a laser light. The Fibrance material doesn’t give off heat either, making it the perfect choice for the Glow.

The design is a true champion of innovative thinking. Imagine allowing the billions of smartphone users to have instant access to VR content at the press of a switch. There are obviously some caveats to the Figment. For starters, the wall that separates the left-eye content from the right-eye content is absent in the design. Plus, given that those lenses sit on the back of you’re phone, they would probably have to be made out of some incredibly resilient tempered glass. However I believe the Figment has opened the floodgates for making similar products that make VR incredibly accessible, because until we actually start getting a taste of Augmented Reality, VR is the most obvious future!

The paper-plane construction means that your drone will never get damaged, while it also allows the drone to continue flying in a random flight pattern, giving the VR headset wearer quite a roller-coaster ride! The PaperVR drone comes without controls, and has an in-built live video streaming service within. Connect your phone to the PlaneVR app and slip it into your VR headset and get ready for the most adventurous flight of your life!